National study finds post-traumatic stress disorder common among injured patientsSeptember 11, 2008Suffering a traumatic injury can have serious and long-lasting implications for a patient's mental health, according to the largest-ever U.S. study evaluating the impact of traumatic injury. Researchers from the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, the University of Washington, and the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that post-traumatic stress disorder and depression were very common among patients assessed one year after suffering a serious injury. They also found that injured patients diagnosed with PTSD or depression were six times more likely to not have returned to work in the year following the injury. The study followed 2707 injured patients from 69 hospitals across the country, and found 20.7% had post-traumatic stress disorder and 6.6% had depression one year after the injury. Both disorders were independently associated with significant impairments across all functional outcomes: activities of daily living, health status, and the return to usual activities, including work. Patients who had one disorder were three times less likely to be working one year after injury, and patients with both disorders were five to six times less likely to have returned to work. The findings have important implications for U.S. acute care hospitals. Smaller scale investigations in acute care medical settings suggest that evidence-based psychotherapy and collaborative care interventions can reduce the symptoms of PTSD and related conditions among injured trauma survivors. "This study highlights the importance of ongoing studies of PTSD and depression screening, and intervention procedures for injured patients treated in acute care hospitals nationwide," said Douglas Zatzick, M.D., principal investigator and a psychiatrist at the University of Washington. "If studies of PTSD and depression establish the effectiveness of screening and intervention procedures, American College of Surgeons policy requirements similar to the recent mandate for alcohol screening and brief intervention could be considered." The American College of Surgeons now requires that level I trauma centers must have on-site alcohol screening and brief intervention services as a requisite for trauma center accreditation.
University of Washington - Harborview Medical Center | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Related Post-traumatic Stress Current Events and Post-traumatic Stress News Articles Expectant brains help predict anxiety treatment success A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment. Vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder runs in families, study shows Earthquakes have aftershocks - not just the geological kind but the mental kind as well. Just like veterans of war, earthquake survivors can experience post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. Ultrasound shown to exert remote control of brain circuits In a twist on nontraditional uses of ultrasound, a group of neuroscientists at Arizona State University has developed pulsed ultrasound techniques that can remotely stimulate brain circuit activity. Large hormone dose may reduce risk of post-traumatic stress disorder A new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers found that a high dose of cortisone could help reduce the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers Investigate Impact of Stress on Police Officers' Physical and Mental Health Policing is dangerous work, and the danger lurks not on the streets alone. 'Hub' of fear memory formation identified in brain cells A protein required for the earliest steps in embryonic development also plays a key role in solidifying fear memories in the brains of adult animals, scientists have revealed. An apparent "hub" for changes in the connections between brain cells, beta-catenin could be a potential target for drugs to enhance or interfere with memory formation. PTSD endures over time in family members of ICU patients Family members may experience post-traumatic stress as many as six months after a loved one's stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and University of California, San Francisco. Study offers new insights into teenagers and anxiety disorders Can scientists predict who will develop anxiety disorders years in advance? UCLA psychology professor Michelle Craske thinks so. She is four years into an eight-year study evaluating 650 students, who were 16 when the study began, to identify risk factors for the development of anxiety and depression - the most comprehensive study of its kind. National study finds post-traumatic stress disorder common among injured patients Suffering a traumatic injury can have serious and long-lasting implications for a patient's mental health, according to the largest-ever U.S. study evaluating the impact of traumatic injury. Physical and sexual abuse linked to asthma in Puerto Rican kids Children who are physically or sexually abused are more than twice as likely to have asthma as their peers, according to a recent study of urban children in Puerto Rico. In fact, physical and sexual abuse was second only to maternal asthma in all the risk factors tested, including paternal asthma and indicators of socioeconomic status. More Post-traumatic Stress Current Events and Post-traumatic Stress News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||